CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — APHA 2026 Annual Meeting and Expo
Ethics
Meeting theme: "Together We Thrive: Health Across the Lifespan"
Submission Deadline: Tuesday, March 31, 2026
The Ethics Section is pleased to invite abstract submissions for oral, roundtable, lightning, and poster sessions on topics concerning public health ethics and public health. We encourage submissions from academic researchers, public health practitioners, students and other public health partners.
The Ethics Section notes that public health will face many challenges through the next several years, making public health a national and global priority. We seek abstracts that reflect research findings, case studies, and best practices promoting making the public's health across the lifespan a national priority.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and the community’s health is only as secure as that of the most underrepresented population. We must work together to lift up those most in need so everyone can achieve their optimal health and well-being across the lifespan.
The Section particularly welcomes content that increases inquiry with, discussion of, and dissemination of the Public Health Code of Ethics (APHA 2019) located on the About APHA webpage.
Engaging with Artificial Intelligence in Public Health Practice and Research Ethical challenges, benefits, and consequences of engaging with and utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs), and "big data" systems in public health practice across the lifespan, including in institutes of higher learning and/or in state and local health organizations.
Prioritizing Public Health using the APHA Code of Public Health Ethics Abstracts that relate to using the APHA Public Health Code of Ethics to prioritize the public’s health for guiding innovative approaches to ethical decision-making in both research and practice, teaching, and dissemination. Submissions on this topic might elaborate on how novel application of the Public Health Code of Ethics framework to pressing public health issues across the lifespan. Abstracts may also address strengths, gaps, and expanding applications of the Code to current public health infrastructure.
Prioritizing the Public’s Health By Addressing Intersectionality of Social Determinants of Health Challenges of public health in addressing social determinants of health that impact intersections between health and all other areas of human flourishing; challenges of addressing the complexity of intersectionality of social issues. Examples could include: climate change, environmental health, food systems, educational attainment, reproductive health, economic robustness, housing, transportation, built environment, focusing across the lifespan.
Prioritizing the Public’s Health By Addressing the Vulnerabilities of Minoritized Populations: Exploring public health practice, research, academics and other cases that apply a public health ethics lens by addressing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and addressing vulnerabilities of minoritized populations across the lifespan. Open to work with, around, or addressing tensions with changing language requirements and usage
Prioritizing the Public’s Health through Community Engagement and Building Responsive Partnerships Exploring ethical issues around expectations and applications of community-engaged work in building and maintaining responsive partnerships. Examples include: deliberating and balancing ethical tradeoffs and considerations inherent to public health practice; redressing failures of public health; and/or developing sound public health policy.
Prioritizing the Public’s Health through Transparent Public Deliberation, Accountability, Data Privacy and Protection Exploring public health practice, research, academics and other cases that apply a public health ethics lens by addressing transparency, accountability, and responsible use of data in public health, especially data privacy and protection in genetics and population databases.
Social and Historical Lessons Social and political history of public health, especially addressing local ethical challenges in the public health community with a focus across the lifespan.
Student-Led Session: Innovating with the Public Health Code of Ethics: Applied Decision-Making to Current Public Health Issues Student-submitted abstracts that relate to using the APHA Public Health Code of Ethics to explore innovative approaches to applying Public Health Code of Ethics to current public health issues in both research and practice, with an emphasis on the public’s health across the lifespan.
Other Topics Related to Public Health Ethics Other topics related to public health ethics will be considered, with special attention to legal issues, environmental issues, and health informatics and information technology, and public health ethics issues across the lifespan
Submission instructions
Please Note: APHA does not provide scholarships, grants or other financial support to cover meeting-related expenses for presenters or moderators. In some cases, some sections may offer scholarships, and those details will be provided on the APHA website the first week of June. Scholarships go fast and must be approved by the section on a first-come, first-serve basis.
You do not need to be a member of APHA, the Ethics Section, or a professional in ethics, to submit an abstract. However, accepted presenters must become APHA members prior to the Annual Meeting. Please contact the program planners with any questions - Caitlin McMahon (cem2173@cumc.columbia.edu) and Caren Frost (caren.frost@socwk.utah.edu)
If you are submitting from outside the U.S. and, if accepted, would require APHA confirmation for visa purposes, please include the contact information of your American consulate along with your contact information.
Please note that if you are submitting an abstract to another APHA section, their instructions might be slightly different. Ethics Section abstracts are limited to 350 words.
Abstracts are scored based on:
1. Relevance to public health ethics AND/OR relevance to the meeting theme.
2. Originality.
3. Quality and clarity of the description of what will be presented.
4. Quality and completeness of supporting data, theoretical model, and/or philosophical foundations of what will be presented.
5. Importance for public health practice.
Student Submissions
Submissions by students and trainees are especially encouraged. Note the addition this year of a specific "Student-Led Session." If you are a student or were first author on the submission while a student or trainee, please note this in the 'Presenting Author and Awards Submission' section of the abstract submission page to be considered for a graduate or undergraduate award. If you are a NIH K-awardee or other career development award recipient cultivating ethics or section related expertise, you are also eligible.
Session Submission Preferences and Types
Oral presentations are 12-15 minutes. Oral presenters are organized into panel discussion with up to four presenters. A minimum of 15 minutes of overall 1.5-hour session time should be allowed for questions/discussion with the audience.
NOTE: You may submit an abstract for a panel, with all presenters assigned to a single session. Please be sure to include all presenters names in the submission. A panel submission is still limited to four speakers.
Round table sessions: Presenters will host a table with a brief presentation of their abstract, Attendees have up to 3 rounds to hear a table presentation within the session.
A Lightning presentation is brief 5-minute talk organized around a shared theme or topic and may also be used to provide updates on key findings. Each session will include 10 presentations, followed by a Q&A period after all presentations are completed.
Poster sessions are typically one hour (with attendees approaching the presenter at their poster throughout the hour).
Continuing Education Credit
The Ethics Section requires all abstracts conform to the APHA Continuing Education (CE) requirements so that all Ethics sponsored sessions will be eligible for CE credits for attendees.
APHA values the ability to provide continuing education credit to physicians, nurses, health educators, veterinarians, and those certified in public health at its annual meeting. These attendees may be counting on attaining the credits needed for license renewal. Please complete all required information when submitting an abstract as incomplete information can disqualify a session for CE credit.
For a session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credit, each presenter must provide:
1) An abstract free of trade and/or commercial product names.
2) Only one or two MEASURABLE outcomes. (DO NOT USE “To understand” or “To learn” as objectives, they are not measurable.) Acceptable measurable action words are: Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define, or List.
3) A signed Conflict of Interest (Disclosure) Form with a relevant Qualification Statement. Please indicate what qualifies you personally to speak on this topic. An example of an acceptable Qualification Statement can be viewed on the online Disclosure form.
Contact the program planners if you have any questions concerning continuing education credit and they will direct your inquiry to the Continuing Education staff member.
